Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation

"Devices enormously smaller than before will remodel engineering,chemistry, medicine, and computer technology. How can we understandmachines that are so small? Nanosystems covers it all: powerand strength, friction and wear, thermal noise and quantumuncertainty. This is the book for starting the next century ofengineering." - Marvin Minsky

MIT Science magazine calls Eric Drexler "Mr. Nanotechnology."For years, Drexler has stirred controversy by declaring thatmolecular nanotechnology will bring a sweeping technologicalrevolution - delivering tremendous advances in miniaturization,materials, computers, and manufacturing of all kinds. Now, he'swritten a detailed, top-to-bottom analysis of molecular machinery -how to design it, how to analyze it, and how to build it.Nanosystems is the first scientifically detailed description ofdevelopments that will revolutionize most of the industrialprocesses and products currently in use.

This groundbreaking work draws on physics and chemistry toestablish basic concepts and analytical tools. The book thendescribes nanomechanical components, devices, and systems,including parallel computers able to execute 1020 instructions persecond and desktop molecular manufacturing systems able to makesuch products. Via chemical and biochemical techniques, proximalprobe instruments, and software for computer-aided moleculardesign, the book charts a path from present laboratory capabilitiesto advanced molecular manufacturing. Bringing together physics,chemistry, mechanical engineering, and computer science,Nanosystems provides an indispensable introduction to theemerging field of molecular nanotechnology.

Page 383~0.5 maj per molecule delivered, using the parameters assumed in Section 13.2.
1e. This is small compared to the useful work performed in molecular
concentration (~20 maj per molecule, Section 13.2.1a); losses from entropy of
mixing are ...

Page 421General approach This section and Table 14.1 outline an architecture for a
system capable of manufacturing macroscopic objects. The subsystem capacities
are chosen to permit the conversion of a feedstock solution consisting of small ...

About the author (1992)

K. ERIC DREXLER published the first scientific paper on molecular nanotechnology in 1981. In addition, he taught the first course on the subject (at Stanford University) and chaired the first two conferences. He is currently President of the Foresight Institute and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. He wrote Nanosystems while a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Department of Computer Science and continues to lecture at universities and corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He received his doctoral degree in molecular nanotechnology from MIT.